Fear
by Cody'sxFavoritexGirl
Summary: It's been a year since the Clickers fell from the sky. They destroyed everything in their path, intent on eliminating the human race from Earth. A small band of survivors remains, holed up in New York City. The Clickers are everywhere, making it impossible for them to leave. Their only hope is rescue, but that seems like nothing but a fantasy. And the fear is always there.


**1**

"**The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." -Franklin Delanor Roosevelt**

The sun hung high in the clear blue sky, beating down on the cracked pavement and glaring off of the broken glass of the dilapidated skyscrapers lining either side of the street. Randy Orton's footsteps were one of the only sounds to be heard in the wasteland, echoed by the footsteps of his two companions. Gray eyes scanned the empty buildings and overturned cars, searching for any sign of movement. Randy's hands tightened on his rifle as his ears strained for any noise out of the ordinary.

"Damn," Cody Rhodes muttered from beside him, causing him to jump a little.

"What is it, Codes?" Randy asked, slinging his rifle over his shoulder and turning to look at him.

Cody had stopped next to a rubble pile, his piercing blue eyes fixed on something at the bottom. Rubble piles were pretty common nowadays, especially along streets that once bustled with traffic and people. After The Coming, the buildings that were still standing slowly crumbled, pieces of concrete and steel tumbling down to the cracked pavement below. Caution was required when patrolling the streets, because shit could fall out of the sky and bash your skull in without any warning.

"Poor bastard," Cody said, stepping aside so Randy could see the decaying arm sticking out from under the mountain of glass, brick, and metal. It wasn't anything they hadn't seen before, but it still hit all of them every once in awhile that this had been a living, breathing human just like them. You never truly got used to it.

"And that's why we always keep our eyes on the sky, boys," Randy remarked, walking over to get a closer look at the arm.

"I thought we keep our eyes on the sky because of the Clickers," Ted DiBiase exclaimed, wandering over to join the pair by the pile.

"That too," he replied, tearing his gray eyes away from the arm and meeting Ted's bright blue gaze. "But there are dangers other than the Clickers in this new world we live in. That's why we must always-"

"-keep alert and keep moving." Cody finished in a sing-songy tone. His icy eyes glittered with warm amusement as he playfully punched the older man's tattooed shoulder. "We've heard it so many times that we have it memorized, Randy. Relax. We know what we're doing."

Randy shook his head, pretending to be annoyed, when really he was silently thanking Cody for lightening the mood. He was a good guy to have around. He always seemed to find the positive side of things, no matter how grim the situation. And there were a lot of grim situations these days.

"Alright, let's get going," Randy said, turning away from the rubble pile and adjusting his rifle on his shoulder. "We have a lot to patrol today."

"Yeah yeah," Ted mumbled, a snapping sound reaching Randy's ears as he readied his handgun. "I wish we could just take a break."

"It's kind of hard to take a break from the apocalypse, Ted," Randy snapped, letting his exhaustion and irritation get the best of him. "Unless you feel like dying today!"

"Do you?" Ted growled, tightening his grip around his gun.

"Hey!" Cody cried, stepping quickly between his two friends. "Let's all just take a deep breath and calm down."

"Fuck calming down!" Ted shouted, his voice bouncing off of the barely-there buildings around them and sounding even louder in the silence. "Fuck the Clickers, fuck the death, fuck all of _this_!" He waved his hands wildly around. "I'm sick of this shit!"

The rage deep inside that Randy had kept under control for so long burst free, and he grabbed Ted by the front of his torn and blood-stained shirt and slammed him up against an overturned car, his gray eyes burning with fury and barely concealed pain.

"You think I'm not?!" he screamed, his face inches away from Ted's. "You think I enjoy this life?! You think I enjoy seeing pieces of bodies and organs scattered around?! You think I want to be here right now?! Of course I don't! I wish this had never happened too, Ted, but it did, and we either have to deal with it or we die! And I don't know about you, but I don't want to die!"

Ted stared back at Randy, his chest heaving and his eyes shining with something that looked like tears. He opened his mouth to say something, but Cody's quiet voice cut him off.

"Guys."

Randy and Ted turned to look at where he was pointing, and they both froze when they saw the scaled creature that was crawling out of one of the shattered windows about halfway up a skyscraper. Its foot-long claws glittered menacingly in the sunlight, and its rows of razor-sharp teeth flashed as it parted its jaws, steaming drool spilling from its maw as its forked tongue snaked out to taste the air. It had no eyes and no ears, and its entire body was an acid green color. A clicking noise sounded from it, and Randy tightened his grip on Ted's shirt.

"Do not move," he hissed to the Southern man.

Ted's frightened eyes darted from Randy's face to the Clicker, but he did as Randy said and didn't move a muscle. Cody was frozen in place as well, his hand on the handgun hanging at his hip.

The Clicker made more clicking sounds, its head swiveling slowly from side to side even though it had no eyes to see with. A bird flew overhead and the Clicker swung its head up, a snarl emitting from its jaws.

Randy knew that they couldn't stay there any longer. "Cody, Ted, follow me," he whispered. He released Ted's shirt and started moving slowly around the other side of the car, staying low and being careful not to make any noise. Ted followed him, placing his feet very carefully.

Randy had just made it around to the other side of the car when the sound of a bottle breaking shattered the silence, and he spun around to see Cody looking back at him, his face pale and his boot right in the middle of the bottle.

The Clicker let out a screech, and it sprang out of the building to the ground, slithering along the cracked pavement towards Cody. Randy cursed and scrambled towards Cody, and it became a sort of race between him and the Clicker, both of them trying to get to Cody first. Randy lunged forward right as the Clicker did, and his hand closed around Cody's muscular forearm and yanked him away just as the Clicker's jaws shot forward. Its teeth snapped shut around empty air, and Randy seized Cody and ran for the car as fast as he could. The Clicker chased them, springing off of cars and rubble piles and crawling up on buildings. Randy could feel his heart pounding painfully in his chest, and he knew that there was no way that he and Cody were getting out of this. They were done for.

The Clicker leaped at them, its claws swiping, and Randy dove towards the ground, tugging Cody down with him. The Clicker flew over them and landed a few feet away.

"Move!" Randy shouted, pushing Cody in the direction of a taxi that lay on its roof to their right. Cody crawled as fast as he could towards it, Randy right behind him. He heard the Clicker coming behind them, and he reached for his rifle, only to feel a rush of panic when he realized that it wasn't there. It must have fallen off when they dove for the ground.

Cody reached the taxi and scrambled inside through one of the broken windows. He turned and reached out for Randy, seizing him by the shirt and the strap of his backpack and pulling him in.

Randy was halfway into the taxi when he felt a stinging pain run through his ankle, and he screamed out as he was yanked backwards, the Clicker trying to drag him out.

Cody held tight to Randy's shirt, his muscles straining as he tried to pull his friend back inside. The sound of fabric ripping reached his ears, and Cody watched in horror as Randy's shirt began to tear. His heart raced. He couldn't let this thing take another one of his friends. He had already lost so much already.

Something rose up inside of him, and Cody looked down into Randy's terrified gray eyes. Without another word, Cody released him, and Randy let out a scream as the Clicker pulled him out of the taxi.

Randy rolled over, and all he could see was the Clicker's jaws coming towards his head. He had never really believed in God, but he started praying in that moment, his life flashing before his eyes like a mini movie.

And then the Clicker was gone.

Randy lay there in shock for a second, and then he sat up just in time to see Cody wrestling with the Clicker a few feet away. Cody kicked its head away and yanked his gun out of his belt, raising it and pointing it at the Clicker's head. His finger pulled the trigger, but all that came out of the muzzle was a clicking noise.

The gun was jammed.

Randy saw what happened next in excruciating detail, as if it was happening in slow motion. The look of realization that dawned on Cody's face, the useless clicking of the gun, the Clicker lunging forward. Its claws raked down the left side of Cody's face, and he screamed in agony as blood spurted.

"CODY!"

The sound of screeching tires broke through the haze that Randy had been in, and suddenly a pickup truck came out of nowhere, flying past him and slamming into the Clicker. It let out a screech of surprise and pain, and it was flung right through a building.

"Get in!" Ted yelled out the driver's side window at Randy.

Randy pulled himself to his feet, ignoring the pain in his ankle and limping as fast as he could over to where Cody lay. He froze when he saw the younger man's face, swallowing hard to stop himself from throwing up. The left side of Cody's face was a bloody mess.

He scooped Cody up in his arms, careful not to jar his head too much. He carried the unconscious man over to the bed of the truck, laying him gently inside. Then he swung himself up into the bed as well and pounded on the cab of the truck with his fist. The tires squealed once again as Ted punched the gas, and Randy held Cody steady as they sped off.


End file.
